20 questions with no calculator: the four operations, fractions, percentages, order of operations, factors and estimation.
✏️ Paper 1 non-calculator warm-up — Foundation
Paper 1 is worth exactly as much as each calculator paper, and it is the one most Foundation students practise least. This sheet is a warm-up for it: twenty questions drawn from the number and ratio statements that turn up on the non-calculator paper year after year — column arithmetic with decimals and negatives, adding and subtracting fractions, percentages of amounts, priority of operations, factors and multiples, and estimating by rounding to one significant figure. Do it with a pen and nothing else. Twenty-five minutes is about right, but do not stop early if you need longer; the point is to find out which of these have quietly gone rusty, not to score well. Mark it, then go back to the topic page for whichever one cost you the most.
- 1.A shop assistant says that 7.2 × 3.9 = 56.16. Work out an estimate for 7.2 × 3.9, by rounding each number to the nearest whole number, to show that the assistant’s answer cannot be correct.
- 2.Work out an estimate for 6.4 × 3.9, by rounding each number to the nearest whole number.
- 3.Oliver drives 95 km at an average speed of 50 km/h. Work out an estimate for the time the journey takes, by rounding the distance to the nearest 100 km.
- 4.A number is divided by 5, then 6 is subtracted, giving the result −1. Work out the number.
- 5.A charity collects donations from adults and children in the ratio 5:2. Altogether, £238 is collected. Work out how much more the adults donate than the children.
- 6.Work out √25 + 4² − 12 ÷ 3
- 7.Work out the lowest common multiple of 9 and 15.
- 8.Work out an estimate for 8,900 ÷ 29, by rounding each number to 1 significant figure.
- 9.A jacket normally costs £65. In a sale it is reduced by 20%, and the shop then takes a further £5 off at the till. Work out the final price.
- 10.Work out (−2)³ + (−3)² − (−4)
- 11.Work out 4368 ÷ 12.
- 12.Write 0.325 as a fraction in its simplest form.
- 13.3/5 of the students in a year group walk to school. 90 students walk to school. Work out the total number of students in the year group.
- 14.At a bus station one bus leaves every 6 minutes and another leaves every 9 minutes. The two buses leave together at the start of the day. Work out how long it is until they next leave together.
- 15.Which of these numbers is a common factor of 18 and 24?
- 16.Write 0.36 as a fraction in its simplest form.
- 17.A restaurant adds a service charge of 15% to a bill of £120. Work out the service charge.
- 18.A recipe for one cake needs 2/3 of a cup of sugar. Priya has 3 1/2 cups of sugar. Work out how many complete cakes she can make.
- 19.A number is multiplied by 4, then 8 is added, giving the result 40. Work out the number.
- 20.There are 400 students at a school. 25% of them have a brother, 40% have a sister and 15% have both a brother and a sister. Work out how many of the students have neither a brother nor a sister.
What is on this worksheet?
The sheet holds 20 questions drawn from the MathsUK bank — the content areas covered: Number, Ratio, proportion and rates of change (statements N2, N3, N4, N10, N12, N14, R4, R5, R9). It is pitched at GCSE Foundation and takes about 25 minutes to work through in full. It is built for independent practice, with full answers at the end for self-marking.
How to use the sheet well
- Print it or open it on screen — both work. Printing is A4; the screen view fits phones and tablets.
- Do all 20 questions before checking — about 25 minutes is the guide, but there is no time pressure.
- Check the answers — press “Show answers” or print the answer page separately.
- Redo the questions you got wrong — twice as effective as doing 20 fresh ones.
- “New questions” — builds a fresh sheet on the same statements, so you can practise again without repeats.
Why this sheet helps
MathsUK worksheets use questions graded by difficulty and a fair spread of correct-answer positions (the answer is not always (a)) — so the student really has to think about each question rather than guess a pattern. Every question is tagged to a DfE content statement and checked before it enters the bank. The answers come with a step-by-step explanation, not just a value — so a wrong answer becomes a lesson.
Similar worksheets worth a look
- 🧮 Paper 1 non-calculator warm-up — Higher · 20 questions · ~25 min
- 🎯 Grade 4 pass booster · 25 questions · ~40 min
- ⚖️ Foundation to Higher crossover check · 20 questions · ~35 min
- 💷 Percentages and compound interest · 22 questions · ~40 min